Why Twitter sometimes rewards what most people disapprove of: The case of cross-party political relations

Recent evidence shows social media platforms like Twitter (now X) reward politically divisive content, despite most people disapproving of interparty conflict and negativity. We document this discrepancy, and provide the first evidence explaining it, using American Senators’ tweets and American adults’ responses to them. Studies 1a-b examined 6135 Senators’ tweets, finding they received more Likes and Retweets for dismissing than for engaging constructively with opponents. In contrast, Studies 2a-b (N=856, 1968 observations) revealed the broader public if anything prefers politicians’ engaging tweets. Studies 3 (N=323, 4571 observations) and 4 (N=261, 2610 observations) supported two distinct explanations for this disconnect. First, users who frequently react to politicians’ tweets are an influential-yet-unrepresentative minority, rewarding dismissing posts because, unlike most people, they prefer them. Second, the silent majority admit they too would reward dismissing posts more, despite disapproving of them. These findings help explain why popular online content sometimes distorts true public opinion.